0:01

Ted Audio Collective A

0:07

couple years back, a business school

0:09

friend of mine said she wanted

0:12

to start a nonpartisan organization that

0:14

united business leaders with the goal

0:16

of protecting democracy. Her vision was

0:19

to ensure business leaders were civically

0:21

informed and to foster proactivity toward

0:24

their big picture goals. The organization

0:26

was designed to give people concrete

0:28

ways to lend their resources and

0:31

their expertise. She had

0:33

named the organization the Leadership Now

0:35

Project. I

0:37

was in. My partner at

0:40

the time joined as one of the

0:42

group's founding members, and I joined too.

0:45

It's been amazing to see

0:47

the Leadership Now Project grow into what

0:49

it is today. This mission

0:52

is especially important now, given

0:54

it's a really big election year, not

0:56

just in the U.S., but around

0:59

the world. I'm

1:03

Madu Bakkenola. This

1:05

is Ted Business. Today's

1:07

speaker is Daniella Belew-Ares. She's

1:11

the founder of the Leadership Now Project.

1:13

And like I mentioned earlier, she and

1:15

I go way back. She's

1:17

here to tell us about the role

1:19

business leaders can play in safeguarding American

1:22

democracy. Then after the talk, she

1:24

and I reconnect to talk about business,

1:27

politics, and what this coming

1:29

year might look like. But

1:32

first, a quick break. Hi,

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3:43

Hey everyone, I'm Dan Cortler, the host

3:45

of Ted climate. Each episode we unpack

3:47

the problems and solutions of climate change.

3:50

This season of the show, we're getting into

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part? we look at how building a

4:02

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follow Ted climate wherever you're listening to this.

4:14

So a few years ago, I was catching up with

4:16

a friend from business school. A

4:18

church executive who on the surface seemed

4:20

to be thriving. She

4:22

had a great career, a beautiful family, and she was

4:24

just one of those people who seemed to have it

4:26

all together. But

4:29

in reality, she was struggling. The

4:32

Turkish government had started going after business

4:34

leaders whose views it disagreed with. Some

4:37

of their companies had been shut down. Others

4:40

were in jail. She

4:42

was scared and she felt

4:44

guilty because she and everyone she knew

4:46

had stayed out of politics. They

4:49

had focused on building their companies and raising

4:51

their children and now they were paying

4:53

the price. As

4:55

she left, she said to me with urgency, in

4:59

Turkey, we're in season 10 in this

5:01

series we call the demise of democracy.

5:04

In the US, you're in season 3.

5:10

On January 6, 2021, I could hear

5:12

the sirens from my home. Living

5:15

six bucks from the Capitol in

5:17

a neighborhood more typically occupied by

5:20

strollers, not angry insurrectionists, I

5:22

asked my children to stay inside and play in

5:24

the basement where they could not hear the violence.

5:28

And I watched in fear as

5:30

our institutions and our leaders

5:33

came under attack. The

5:36

next season in the decline

5:38

of American democracy had begun.

5:43

Okay, so this is not the problem I

5:45

thought needed solving when I got an engineering

5:47

degree and an MBA in the 90s. The

5:51

Berlin Wall had fallen and every

5:53

leading political scientist assured us that

5:56

communism and authoritarianism were in

5:59

permanent decline. Democracy

6:02

was the clear winner in a long

6:04

Cold War battle, and economic

6:06

growth and development was the new imperative.

6:10

So pursuing a government job,

6:12

but in boring, inefficient-seeming

6:15

path, seemed illogical.

6:18

And so we went off to get our MBAs and change

6:20

the world through business, in

6:22

Johannesburg or Beijing

6:26

or Moscow or New York or Silicon

6:28

Valley. Our

6:30

big challenge was innovating enough to

6:32

create opportunities in new markets. Standing

6:37

here today, this is not the future I

6:39

imagined in the 90s. Communism

6:42

might be a distant memory, but authoritarianism is on

6:44

the rise. And

6:47

for those who built careers in business, assuming

6:49

that rule of law and

6:51

democratic capitalism would remain intact, we

6:55

now have the

6:57

obligation, the opportunity, the

6:59

power to take action. And

7:05

my generation, Gen Xers, have a

7:07

particular obligation because we now lead

7:09

the majority of companies in the

7:11

U.S. And I don't

7:13

just mean the C-suite, I mean the investors,

7:15

the entrepreneurs, the executives who

7:18

saw success as our public institutions

7:20

faltered. Okay,

7:23

so some of you might be getting a

7:26

little skeptical, thinking,

7:28

is she suggesting we need

7:30

more corporate influence in politics? Okay,

7:34

look, I am not suggesting we

7:36

need more checks written to advance

7:38

specific narrow corporate interests. What I'm

7:40

talking about here today is about

7:42

a different challenge. And I'd

7:44

suggest an even bigger one. That

7:46

the pro-democracy of business leaders will stay

7:49

out of politics because it's the safe

7:51

thing to do, it's the respectable thing

7:53

to do. And what history

7:55

tells us, That when business leaders

7:57

stay out of politics, The

8:00

Nazi Germany, The modern day Turkey.

8:03

And. Hungry. And

8:06

they passively enable autocrats

8:08

democracies collapse. But.

8:10

When business leaders. Engage. We.

8:13

Have a better chance at

8:15

democracy surviving. As occurred

8:17

in South Africa when a group of

8:19

business leaders played a pivotal role in

8:21

ending Apartheid without a civil war. Okay

8:26

so what is the solution? Really look like. I'm

8:29

not suggesting we need more corporate

8:31

virtue signaling and C O statements

8:33

on every issue of the day.

8:36

And the Silicon Valley dream of techno

8:39

optimism I fear also can help us.

8:41

I don't think tech prose inheriting the

8:43

earth last. Our problem for us. What?

8:46

We need now are courageous leaders

8:49

who understand that it is squarely

8:51

in their self interest. To

8:54

protect our elections in a

8:56

former institutions To ensure that

8:58

this information doesn't eliminate politics

9:00

and. To. Really?

9:03

Play. Their role. In

9:07

protecting our system. So.

9:11

For twenty years, saving American Democracy

9:13

was not part of my professional

9:15

and person's I was advising companies

9:17

a Bain, I was part of

9:19

building imagining consulting company across as

9:21

consonants and even when I went

9:23

into government it was to focus

9:25

on be think private investment and

9:27

newly emerging economies. But.

9:31

When I got to Washington and join

9:33

the Obama Administration's here's what got me

9:35

scared. Was. That are public

9:37

institutions that projected so much care.

9:40

Seems under nice to be

9:42

fragile and disruptive. or. And

9:45

by twenty seven seen, it was clear

9:48

that that disruption was well underway. And

9:51

of assigned to pivot to a new mission. To.

9:54

Focus on brain business leaders

9:56

into the project to renew

9:58

American. democracy I

10:01

consulted with some of the most thoughtful

10:03

academics studying the US political system and

10:06

pulled together a group of my Harvard Business

10:08

School classmates to design a different kind of

10:11

political organization. We started

10:13

to bring together business leaders from

10:15

different industries, geographies, and political persuasions.

10:18

We call it the Leadership Now project. Since

10:21

2018, we've been deploying our

10:23

time, dollars, and networks to

10:26

preserving democracy. And we've seen

10:28

that we can make progress. We now

10:30

have members in more than 20 states and

10:32

some real successes under our belt. And

10:36

our members are individual business leaders who

10:39

come to this work not as Democrats

10:41

or Republicans, but as Americans. We

10:44

focus our efforts on the higher

10:46

ROI strategies at a state and

10:49

federal level. We really work

10:52

to make the economic case that an

10:54

unstable democracy harms business and our economy.

10:57

And increasingly, we're clear at what's really

10:59

at stake. That

11:01

when democracy falters, the rule of law

11:04

goes out the window. Innovation

11:06

is crushed along with dissent. Leaders

11:09

reward friends and punish enemies, and

11:11

wars become far more likely. We've

11:17

built Leadership Now applying modern business

11:20

thinking to an old-school political model,

11:22

the dues-paying membership organization, which

11:25

some of those powerful players in politics

11:27

have employed for decades, like the

11:30

Chamber of Commerce, the NAACP,

11:32

the NRA, unions,

11:35

the Sierra Club. They've all

11:37

used this model because it helps us and

11:40

them to play the long game. We're

11:42

not just seeking silver bullets. And

11:45

we don't give up when we fail,

11:47

but we can replicate and scale successes

11:49

across different states when we win.

11:53

And our members are taking real action

11:55

together. Let me share a few examples

11:57

of how, where we set up

11:59

whole trust. and elections, where

12:01

we've sought to protect the people and policies

12:03

that are working to share a shore of

12:05

our democracy, and how we've

12:07

pushed back on political retribution, which

12:09

we see continuing to increase. So

12:12

in October 2020, we issued

12:16

the first public statement by

12:18

a business organization, seeking to

12:21

reinforce the legitimacy of the presidential election

12:23

process. More than 200 leaders

12:25

from across industries joined us,

12:28

and later, major business associations and

12:30

corporations also joined in calling for

12:32

the certification of the election and

12:34

condemnation of the January 6th attack

12:36

on the Capitol. We've

12:40

worked to support some of the leaders

12:42

who are willing to push

12:44

back on threats to democracy. So

12:48

in 2022, a group of Wisconsin business leaders,

12:50

a bipartisan group, asked their

12:52

candidates for governor if they would

12:54

be willing to certify elections, regardless

12:57

of the result. A basic nonpartisan

12:59

question. When one

13:02

of the candidates refused to agree, they

13:04

endorsed his competitor, who went on to

13:06

win a closely fought election. Later

13:10

that year, we worked

13:12

with our member, Paul Tagliabue, the former

13:15

commissioner of the NFL, to pull together

13:17

his longstanding networks in business, sports, and

13:19

the military to support

13:21

legislation to protect future presidential

13:24

election transitions. Later

13:26

that year, Congress did just that,

13:28

passing legislation to reform the

13:31

Electoral Count Act on a bipartisan basis.

13:35

We stand with companies that are threatened with

13:37

political retribution. The governor

13:39

of Florida, Ron DeSantis, had threatened

13:42

Disney with political retribution and actually

13:44

had exacted political retribution for the

13:46

companies disagreeing with him and his

13:49

legislature. We argued that

13:51

this was something that was more typical in

13:53

autocracies, not democracies, like the U.S., and set

13:55

a dangerous precedent. Our amicus

13:57

briefs on the case was found in the

13:59

U.S. and continues to, we continue

14:02

to support Disney's position as the case

14:04

moves forward. We take a

14:06

clear position against laws that damage democracy.

14:09

In August, 2023, Jenny Britton, the

14:11

founder of Jenny Splendid Ice Cream, joined more

14:13

than 50 business leaders in her state of

14:15

Ohio, making the case that a cynical measure

14:18

that sought to limit citizens' ability to weigh

14:20

in on ballot initiatives was bad for democracy.

14:24

The ballot initiative ultimately was defeated

14:26

57 to 43%. We

14:29

have both Democrats and Republicans voting against it.

14:33

Look, this is just

14:35

a start. There are many more successes that we

14:38

can have together. And here's the good news. You

14:40

don't have to act alone. Our

14:42

polling of business leaders shows that

14:44

the majority care about democracy. They

14:46

would like to protect democracy in

14:48

the U.S. So here's a

14:50

few things you can do together with like-minded business

14:52

leaders. Remember that small actions

14:55

have power. If election administrators

14:57

are threatened in a city, even

14:59

if just 10 executives come together and

15:01

take a stand, they will be seen

15:03

as courageous leaders and the unexpected voices

15:05

that are standing up for our system.

15:08

Now imagine if in every city and

15:10

industry, a dozen executives came together and

15:13

made a plan for how they will

15:15

respond when democracy is threatened. Look,

15:19

we're at a tenuous moment. And

15:21

I am certain that we can win

15:24

this fight. But we have watched

15:26

too many seasons of democracy's decline in the

15:28

U.S. and around the world. And

15:31

we need to work now in

15:33

urgency together to save

15:35

our democracy. And I'm more convinced than

15:37

ever that business leaders have a role to play in that.

15:40

Thank you. APPLAUSE

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Canva. Hi, Daniela. It's

17:09

so good to have you on

17:12

Ted Business. Thanks for

17:14

having me, Madhipe. Such a

17:16

pleasure. And you know, we go way

17:18

back. So for me, it's always fun

17:20

to hear more about your journey. Can

17:22

you actually take us through the moment

17:24

where you decided, you know what? What

17:26

I'm doing right now is not the right

17:29

thing. I want to start leadership now. I

17:32

had spent most

17:34

of my career in business, but

17:36

had just spent five years in

17:38

the Obama administration. And

17:41

a lot of the time

17:44

when I was working in government,

17:46

I thought there were so many problems

17:48

worth trying to solve. And

17:51

this country has the capacity to

17:53

solve them. So

17:55

government could be insular in its problem

17:57

solving and sometimes

18:00

unintentionally. didn't benefit

18:02

from all of the expertise

18:04

and innovation that we have

18:06

in this country, particularly

18:09

in the business sector. I joined

18:11

the State Department a week after

18:13

the WikiLeaks scandal. And

18:16

it just showed, right, the technology was

18:19

now able to

18:21

disrupt our most our diplomatic

18:23

relationships around the world, it was

18:25

able to disrupt government. And we'd

18:27

obviously just had a very contentious

18:29

election, one that raised

18:32

to me a lot more than just

18:34

an issue of one of one candidate

18:37

or one election, it raised,

18:39

do we have a democracy that people have

18:41

faith in? I saw this

18:44

moment where people were paying attention to

18:46

politics, were ready to

18:48

do something that was more meaningful

18:50

than how they'd engaged in the

18:52

past. And we needed harness that

18:54

energy. I

18:57

mean, you raise the idea

18:59

or the thought that yet people

19:01

were not as engaged and people

19:03

are skeptical about politics and skeptical

19:05

about business. So for people who

19:07

are skeptical, and you're bringing this

19:09

idea of merging the two or

19:12

public private partnerships, what would

19:14

you say to them? What would you say in

19:16

terms why this is so important? And how we

19:18

can count on business to keep

19:20

the public's interest in mind? How

19:22

would we even think about and

19:24

have vulnerable communities in mind and

19:26

at heart, given it's

19:28

coming from a corporate lens?

19:30

So we want to explicitly

19:33

stake out a different position for

19:35

business than some of what the existing

19:38

business oriented entities and politics like many

19:40

of the chambers of commerce who say

19:42

our own legal minimizing taxes and minimizing

19:44

regulation, we're not going to worry about

19:47

any of the other things that might

19:49

be an issue for our system work

19:52

collaboratively with other organizations

19:55

in a coalition. I see what we're building

19:57

here is the Coalition for Democracy and business.

20:00

this is a part of that coalition. And

20:02

we need to do the work to have a

20:04

group of business people who are well-informed

20:06

and committed enough to participate in

20:08

the coalition, and then work with

20:10

many other different communities in the

20:12

process. And in a given

20:14

state, we'll collaborate with many different organizations

20:16

that have similar goals. And they might

20:19

be approaching those goals differently.

20:21

They might disagree with us on other things,

20:23

but we know that we're all committed to

20:25

democracy. The one last thing

20:27

I would just say is that our

20:29

organization is explicitly business people who are

20:32

members. We don't actually have any corporate

20:34

members institutionally. Our resources are

20:36

through membership dues of individuals who are

20:39

here to stand up for

20:41

democracy as business people and

20:43

as citizens. So we do see this as

20:47

akin to organizations of

20:49

individuals not representing institutions.

20:53

The idea that you're having business

20:55

people who are making

20:57

decisions not institutional is really important.

20:59

You mentioned having coalitions where people

21:01

are coming together with common goals.

21:03

What's an example of a common

21:05

goal besides just the goal of

21:08

having a democracy

21:10

that works? I'll

21:13

give an example right now. Our

21:15

members in Ohio are working

21:17

to support objective redistricting

21:19

in the state. And

21:22

there is going to be a ballot initiative

21:25

in November that

21:27

would create objective redistricting. And many

21:29

of the business people in our

21:32

membership have seen that highly gerrymandered

21:34

legislature is very polarized, makes bad

21:36

decisions that are inconsistent with what

21:39

the citizens want. And

21:41

we're working coalitions with a wide range

21:43

of groups who share that concern and

21:45

goals to get the message out. What

21:47

else would you like to see business

21:49

people do to further the

21:52

progress of the movement that you're a

21:54

part of? Yeah. Well,

21:56

it's 2024. We do happen to

21:58

have an election coming up in the. US,

22:01

you might have noticed. And

22:05

we're really worried about election

22:07

officials and election administrators. Many

22:10

of them have been

22:12

threatened. Many have quit

22:14

their jobs. We've worked with election

22:17

administrators in Pennsylvania and in Arizona,

22:19

for instance, Republicans who came

22:22

under threat on social media, they've

22:24

had people come to their

22:26

homes, they've even had to hide their families,

22:28

because there was a lack

22:30

of faith in the results of

22:32

the election. So

22:35

this year, we just did an amicus

22:37

brief, a friend of a brief in

22:39

in Wisconsin to support the head of

22:41

elections who the state legislatures tried to

22:43

kick out without cause that that case

22:45

has been dismissed, and she's still in

22:48

place. The business community is coming around

22:50

to celebrate those who are election

22:52

officials to support poll working, time off

22:55

for poll working in their companies. So

22:58

this is a year where

23:00

reminding people that having

23:03

faith in our elections is

23:06

warranted. And supporting

23:09

those who are willing to serve in those

23:11

elections is really critical. It seems really basic

23:13

in a certain way, but it's so

23:16

valuable. Our members in Wisconsin wrote a

23:18

letter to every election administrator thanking them

23:20

for their work. So I think

23:23

supporting those workers and reinforcing

23:27

faith in the election is

23:29

a really core thing that business leaders can do

23:31

everywhere in this country. And we have a lot

23:33

of entrepreneurs as listeners. So

23:35

what is one thing you think everybody

23:38

entrepreneur should know? So the main piece

23:40

of advice I would give entrepreneurs is

23:42

finding your partners in crime early. A

23:45

couple of people who share

23:47

the vision of what

23:49

can be done. Yeah, I've worked

23:52

on two things that frankly were big

23:54

visions, and there would

23:56

be so many doubts that you can get

23:58

to that place. that there's

24:00

not someone else already doing it. And

24:02

I think having a few

24:04

people, they don't have to be even

24:07

on your team. They can be friends,

24:09

they can be board members, but who

24:11

can really explore that vision with you

24:13

and think through how it can be

24:15

a reality and be a cheerleader and

24:18

celebrate when you win is really critical.

24:20

And in addition to having a lot of

24:22

entrepreneurs, we have a global listener

24:25

base. And so what advice would

24:27

you give someone who wants to start a

24:30

Leadership Now project elsewhere in another

24:32

country, in another region? What

24:35

would you say? First of all, please

24:38

do. We hear from betting political

24:41

entrepreneurs in other countries about

24:43

the risks they're seeing to

24:46

democracy often. And

24:48

we need as many like-minded leaders

24:51

to be tackling this issue in creative ways.

24:55

I think my advice to them would be,

24:57

who are the existing

24:59

networks you can tap into that

25:01

are ready to mobilize? It

25:03

was absolutely critical in starting

25:06

Leadership Now that we could tap

25:08

into Harvard Business School alumni and

25:12

faculty networks. It wasn't the only network

25:14

we wanted to ever mobilize, but

25:17

it gave us a grounding and we

25:19

knew who within those networks might

25:22

be ready to engage. And then you

25:24

could grow from there. So figuring out

25:26

if it's an industry group, if it's

25:28

an alumni group, if it's

25:30

a social network, who can

25:33

you start with? And then you can be

25:35

deliberate about going beyond. That makes sense. I

25:37

think my last question to you is, what

25:40

is your hope for the next generation? I

25:43

have two daughters, 17 and 12. So

25:45

I think about it often, and they give

25:47

me lots of inspiration for the work. I'd

25:50

really like to see a sense that

25:54

there is a proactive

25:57

positive. agenda

26:00

coming from government and policy

26:03

that's helping to inspire action

26:05

across sectors. And

26:08

right now people are feeling more

26:11

scared, skeptical, frustrated about

26:14

a variety of

26:16

things, but I don't think it's impossible to turn

26:18

that around. People want a

26:20

positive vision, ultimately. And

26:23

I really hope we can turn that corner

26:25

sooner rather than later. Danielle,

26:28

it is always a treat to

26:30

talk to you. Thank you for

26:32

spending time with me today to

26:34

talk about your TED

26:37

Talk and leadership now. Thank

26:39

you. Incredible to be here. Thank you, Madhib.

26:41

That's it for today. TED Business is part of the TED Audio Collective.

26:45

safety of the United States. Social thanks to

26:47

Maria Lajas, Farah DeGlenn, Corey Hagen, Daniella Ballarizo

26:49

and Michelle Quint.

27:07

I'm Madupa Ekinola. Talk

27:09

to you again next week.